Bunun Sky God Belief (Dihanin)

Introduction

When the Bunun look up at the moon, they see more than its waxing and waning — they see when to sow, when to weed, when to harvest, and which ceremony comes next. Bunun belief holds Dihanin (the Sky God, or Heaven) as the highest spiritual power, ruling over everything between heaven and earth: the weather, the growth of crops, even human fate. Among Taiwan's Indigenous peoples, the Bunun place the greatest weight on the calendar and on farming rituals. Following the phases of the moon, they developed a precise agricultural calendar in which every month has its own rites and taboos, linked one to the next into a complete system of belief built around growing millet. The Sky God is not far away; Dihanin is there in every full moon and every row of millet.

Legend & Origin

The most famous Bunun legend is the story of shooting the sun. In ancient times two suns took turns blazing in the sky. The heat dried up the rivers and scorched the crops, and the people suffered terribly. A warrior of the community resolved to shoot one of the suns down, and set out with his young son toward the place where the sun rises. Father and son crossed mountain after mountain and walked for a very long time — so long that the orange tree the father had planted on his way out had grown tall. At last they reached the edge of the sky. The warrior drew his bow and struck one of the suns with a single arrow. The wounded sun slowly dimmed and became the moon we see today. The moon seized the warrior, and after he repented, the moon taught him the ways of worship and its taboos — which is why the Bunun hold their ceremonies by the moon. From then on there was one sun and one moon in the sky, and life returned to the land.

Worship Guide

Bunun offerings are mainly millet wine and meat, and an elder or priest leads the people in praying to Dihanin. The Bunun also have a unique "pictographic calendar," which records the farm work and ceremonies of each month in picture symbols; the scholar Mabuchi Toichi considered it a priest's memo for keeping track of ritual matters. The most unforgettable part of their worship is the eight-part polyphonic chant (Pasibutbut): the people stand in a circle and, with harmonies stacked layer upon layer, sing a prayer for a good millet harvest. It is not a performance. It is a whole community lifting its wishes to the Sky God together, in one voice made of many.

Festivals

The most important Bunun ceremony is the Ear-Shooting Festival (Malahtangia), held every year around April and May. It is a hunting festival: boys take part in the ear shooting, praying to grow into good hunters, and the songs chanted are the boasting of feats (malastapang). The internationally known eight-part polyphony (Pasibutbut, also called the Prayer for a Millet Harvest) is sung during the season when millet is sown and growing (roughly January to March), asking the Sky God for a good millet harvest; it was registered as a National Important Traditional Performing Art in 2010. The Japanese musicologist Kurosawa Takatomo recorded the song in 1943 and sent it to the international folk music community in 1952, drawing attention from around the world.

Famous Temples

⛩️ Jade Mountain (Sacred Mountain)

Nantou County / Chiayi County / Kaohsiung City

Jade Mountain is the heart of the Bunun traditional territory, regarded as the place closest to the Sky God Dihanin. Important Bunun ceremonies are performed facing Jade Mountain, asking the Sky God for protection.